Although EPA laws have required manufacturers of highway vehicles to utilize exhaust aftertreatment devices to meet emissions requirements for a number of years, further EPA regulations require the use of exhaust aftertreatment devices in off-road vehicles generally described as work machines. The work machines may take many forms including end loaders, back hoes, combines, and other agricultural equipment.
The application of exhaust aftertreatment devices, which can be bulky, to the work machine, requires implementation quite different than the application for highway vehicles. Generally speaking, there is adequate room in a highway vehicle to support the bulky exhaust aftertreatment device away from or underneath the engine.
For work machines, there is a need for a compact engine envelope since the work machine must accomplish many more tasks beyond motion along the ground. This requires a significantly greater utilization of devices that perform power functions in addition to the forward velocity of the machine. As such, the engine components for a work machine are positioned on top of the engine. Turbochargers, exhaust devices, and intake filters are usually positioned over the top of the engine. While this provides a compact engine envelope, it presents additional problems in the servicing of the engine and its components.
Particularly, the exhaust aftertreatment device must be removed after a given period of operating hours for replacement and may also be required to be removed for servicing during that interval. In addition, engine components along the top of the engine are periodically required to be serviced. With the substantial bulk of the exhaust aftertreatment device and intake air filter on the top of the engine, servicing the exhaust aftertreatment device and/or the top engine components is a problem.
What is needed in the art, therefore, is an arrangement for ready and easy servicing of the exhaust aftertreatment device and/or the top portion of the engine.